gailr wrote:Luke, you're verging dangerously near to invoking the sparkling. I beg you not to do this.

I was referring to the "Twilight" saga.

Auugh! He said it! Auugh!

I could do without all the vampires, myself. Though the story behind what inspired Bram Stoker to create his Dracula can be interesting for a history buff. One major element, but not the only one: Vlad IV "the Impaler," a *ahem* bloodthirsty Romanian warlord. Specifically, a Transylvanian warlord. Nicknamed Dracula, or "little dragon," after his father Vlad III Dracul.

gailr wrote:Luke, you're verging dangerously near to invoking the sparkling. I beg you not to do this.

I was referring to the "Twilight" saga.

Auugh! He said it! Auugh!

I know. And after I begged him so politely to *not*. Well, I see how it is around here these days...

Luke: The meyerpires 'sparkle' which [again, imho] doesn't generate fear so much as snorting coffee out one's nose. I also omitted mentioning the Pedophilia!Daddy Issues!lietmotifs in my 30-second critique/rant above. Carl Sagan wrote, "In a novel of ideas, the ideas have to make sense." Internal consistency is wholly lacking in this series, which sets it a long ways apart from the "classics" of the vampire genre. Also, the shocking blue eyes are a feature in Underworld. The sparkling's eyes are red (eeeeevil) or gold (angelic marble cupcake adonis good guys).

Also also, regarding literary trilogies: Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide is marketed as a five-volumn trilogy. Dirk Gently is sometimes referred to as a two-volume trilogy. I don't mind when a talented writer puts an unexpected twist on a prosaic word. I mind it a great deal when I get the impression the writer doesn't understand the meaning of the words s/he uses.

Philip Hudson wrote:Luke: You must be a young sprout. I was already in my dotage when Star Wars came along.

Wow, I'd sure like to hear your definition of dotage. Star Wars came along some 36 years ago. I know you are a Senior Lexiterian, but I did not know we had any centenarians or even nearly such in our midst.

Life is like playing chess with chessmen who each have thoughts and feelings and motives of their own.